Functional solutions architect Cameron is one of our retail and distribution sector experts, and he’s a Nike collector, baseball junkie, and probably the biggest Liverpool FC fan in Colorado.
1. What is the number one sign that a retail business is ready for an ERP?
Before embarking on an ERP It’s really important to see the appetite within the business for digital transformation. There are plenty of businesses, not just in the retail space, that would benefit from implementing technology, but they might not be ready to start on that journey just yet. If you kick off a project when the appetite is lacking, you’re likely to get bogged down and face delays, or could even see the project fail.
2. What are the top pain points you help retail businesses with?
One of the things we spend time on is bringing everyone up to speed to be ready to embark on the implementation journey together. The reality of every organization is that you’re going to find that almost everyone is in a different place in terms of their relationship with technology, and how they embrace it, but to make an implementation successful we need to get everyone on the same journey to the same destination!
3. What do you think is the key benefit that a business can gain from integrating a bespoke stack with a company like Flintech?
It might sound like a cliché, but we have some very senior, experienced consultants who are driven by wanting to help the customer on their journey. It’s very subtle, but being able to talk to somebody within a business and understand the challenges that they’re facing in their own industry means that we’re able to really deliver bespoke solutions for them.
4. What is the number one challenge for retail businesses looking to undergo digital transformation?
Change management tends to be the biggest challenge for companies. It’s a skill that usually starts with the CEO, so it’s important that from the top down there is a desire to embrace the process of transformation. Oftentimes this means that the CEO relinquishes total control and empowers a wider team to make decisions as part of the journey, as this means we’re able to continue to hit the implementation milestones without hitting bottlenecks and roadblocks.
5. How can retailers benefit from the increased data provided by an ERP?
Microsoft has some great tools and applications that really enable businesses to take advantage of their data, and that’s often the promise of an ERP implementation. However, it can be a challenge for businesses to realize how much access to data they have, so as consultants we need to make sure we help our customers to understand how to harness this new data and make the best use of it.
6. What is the one thing you wished every customer knew about systems integration and ERP before embarking on an implementation?
I’d love to see more businesses embrace Power Apps and the Power Platform integrated into their overall solutions. There is huge potential for Power Apps to help solve some of the little gaps in business requirements that people have, and to help them earlier on in their business challenges. Getting a business into the mindset of problem-solving as problems come up, through Power Apps, gets them into the three-dimensional mindset required for successful digital transformation and it’ll reap rewards further down the line.
